1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
i9 
A MARYLAND STRAWBERRY PLANT. 
HOW IT IS GROWN AND DUG. 
A Perfect Glutton For Food. 
[editorial correspondence. I 
Part III. 
Rotation and Crops.—Of course, every man who 
cultivates the soil practices some form of rotation. 
Mr. Allen's salable crops are strawberry plants and 
fruit, cantaloupes, cow peas and dewberries. The 
strawberry plants being the chief money crop, the 
greatest amount of manure and fertilizer is used with 
them. That is about the principle followed by the 
fertilizer farmers of New Jersey who use about 80 per 
cent of the fertilizer on the potatoes, and all the stable 
manure on the corn. The other crops live on what is 
left from corn and potatoes and the clover sod. 
Mr. Allen does not make much use yet of clover. I 
saw but little Crimson clover in that part of Mary¬ 
land. Cow peas, on this light soil, do better and give 
fair cash returns besides improving the soil. On 90 
acres, Mr. Allen grew this year over 900 bushels of 
seed, which will bring over SI,000 besides greatly im¬ 
proving the soil. After digging the plants needed for 
sale and for setting, the remaining plants are fruited 
once, and then the whole thing is plowed under and 
sown to cow peas. Next year, the cow-pea vines are 
worked under, and a crop of cantaloupes grown. After 
that, the ground may come back into strawberry 
plants. If one could see this poor, thin soil, and the 
crops of cow peas that grow on it, he could not fail to 
have an increased respect for this wonderful plant. 
For years, the northern people were taught to believe 
that there was little in southern agriculture that they 
could use to advantage. The cow pea may be called a 
plant that “ has come out of Nazareth.” This tough 
little soil doctor or laud tonic may prove just what is 
needed to restore the neglected back fields on many a 
northern farm. 
Some Business Retails. —It is a great job to keep 
track of 60 or more ordinary laborers. Instead of 
keeping a book account with his men, Mr. Allen uses 
a card five inches long printed after the plan shown at 
Fig. 10. Every night, on coming from the field, each 
workman is given one of these cards numbered, dated 
and punched to show how much is due him. If he has 
earned 75 cents, the 7 mark of the dimes and the 5 of 
the cents is punched. When presented at the little 
store, that card will be worth 75 cents in cash or in 
tobacco, flour, shoes, or meat. If a man come and buy 
a paper of tobacco and a nickel’s worth of candy, one 
dime and one five cents will be punched on the credit 
side, and so on until the 75 cents has been used up, 
and then the card is given up. Mr. Allen says that 
this simple plan works well and saves much book¬ 
keeping and cash handling. He finds it necessary to 
keep the little store in order to hold his workmen. 
Many of them are of an improvident class who seldom 
keep food on hand. If they bought their supplies in 
Salisbury, they would want to leave at all hours of 
the week to do their trading. There is little profit in 
such a small store, but it keeps the hands steadier, 
and rounds out the business by adding a new side to it. 
Some Social Features.— Mr. Allen began his 
great business by investing $15 in strawberry plants, 
which he grew on a small scale for sale. This money 
was earned working out as hired man or boy. At last 
he bought a farm with a lean soil, but a fat mort¬ 
gage. When at last he made $100 in his plant busi¬ 
ness, he decided to spend it all in advertising his 
stock. When his mother heard that he had decided to 
do this, she sat down and had a good cry, for it 
seemed to her that it was just like throwing money 
away. What an illustration that is of the different 
views two sincere p ople may have regarding money. 
One may see only one side to it—the buying side—its 
ODe nearly constant value. Another may understand 
that it will not only buy so much property, but that it 
can be made to earn a great deal more. It takes a 
good farmer to manage a hired man so as to make 
money out of his labor. An even better manager is 
needed to make a dollar safely earn another dollar. 
It seems to me that most men are wiser to plan their 
farms so as to hire as little help as possible and to in¬ 
vest their money in the safest securities, even at a low 
rate of interest. 
I have often spoken of the Peninsula, embracing 
Delaware and eastern Maryland, as a very desira¬ 
ble place for living. The lower part is sandy and 
light, but the land is cheap; cow peas are easy to 
grow, and fertilizers are reasonably cheap. Food and 
fuel are low, and fair-sized towns are within easy 
reach. It would seem as though a northern man, 
with fair capital, energy and common-sense ideas 
about restoring the soil, could take one of these thin 
farms and fatten it at good profit. In theory, at 
least, one would suppose that middle-aged men who 
leave the northeast would prefer to go south. In 
practice, however, most eastern men seem to move 
along certain lines of latitude, and go west—seldom 
south when making a change. h. w. c. 
FORCING RHUBARB IN THE DARK. 
AN ACCOUNT OF A LITTLE-KNOWN INDUSTRY. 
Part II. 
Plants in the Cellar. —A somewhat extended ex¬ 
perience in teaching clearly demonstrated the fact that 
what may seem entirely simple and plain to one per¬ 
fectly familiar with a subject, may present many 
difficulties to the uninitiated. Do not be afraid to 
use a cellar with a cement or other hard floor, only 
supply loose earth enough to fill up all spaces under¬ 
neath and between the roots ; being closely trimmed, 
the roots will not grow to any extent during the forc¬ 
ing season. Have no fear of using the house cellar, 
as no odor or dampness will arise, not even as much 
as from the potato bin. For the housewife to step 
from the busy kitchen right down into a forest of the 
beautifully-colored rhubarb growing at her feet and 
ready to pull and prepare for the table, will be a rest¬ 
ful sight, and one rarely duplicated in Nature. Never 
peel the dark-grown rhubarb for table use, as it grows 
so crisp and tender that there is no necessity for it, 
and by so doing one loses much of the flavor and rare 
coloring of the sauce or other relishes 
Setting' the Plants. —Set the roots closely to¬ 
gether, leaving occasional narrow passageways for 
convenience in gathering. The roots may be dug out 
at any time, and may be set in the cellar as late as 
the middle of February ; they will stand from four to 
six weeks of heavy forcing after beginning to pull, 
depending on the vigor of the roots. When the stalks 
A “CELLAR” FOR FORCING RHUBARB. Fig. 11. 
4 
begin to grow weak or spindling, the roots should be 
removed from the cellar, piled up with sufficient cover¬ 
ing to prevent too much freezing and thawing, and 
left until the season will permit of transplanting. 
They can then be divided with a sharp spade into 
three or four parts, and reset in rich ground four to 
five feet apart each way where, with thorough culture 
and plenty of manure, they should be left to make 
root, and they will be ready for forcing again in from 
two to three years. The rhubarb from these roots 
should not be gathered in Summer ; merely pull out 
the seed stalks, and let all the tops go back on to the 
ground. 
Handling the Roots.—By beginning early in the 
season, or as soon as the roots have been sufficiently 
frozen, two crops may be grown in the same cellar 
during the Winter, which, of course, will be a great 
saving of cellar room. The roots for the later crop may 
be left in the ground until midwinter, or until danger 
of the ground being frozen too hard for removal, when 
they may be taken up and slightly covered until 
wanted for use. The forcing process is very exhausting 
to the roots, and should be discontinued as soon as 
lack of vigor in the growth of the stalks is noticeable; 
the growth can be stopped only by removal from the 
cellar. Rhubarb is of the get-there nature, and will 
grow itself to death if allowed, especially in the cel¬ 
lar ; as a plentiful supply of the roots is the principal 
factor in extensive growing, it pays to husband the 
roots very carefully. 
Making a Cellar. —Fig. 11 shows a view in the 
cellar of Mr. L. Gable, who will grow two crops in 
the one cellar. The object of these articles is to 
gather the facts and illustrations from as widely di¬ 
versified conditions as possible. The fires are already 
started in this cellar ; while the growers who raise 
but one crop will use no heat until the latter part of 
January, preferring the February and March markets 
to the earlier. In this cellar, the roots, after being 
placed, were covered with dry yellow sand, which helps 
to hold the moisture in the roots. This is not neces¬ 
sary, however, as the roots usually have sufficient 
moisture within -themselves to carry them through. 
On December 14, the stalks were just beginning to ap¬ 
pear ; and are ready for market in from three to four 
weeks. 
The cellar is 12 x 50 feet, and holds between 500 and 
600 plants, set on either side about five feet wide, with 
a passageway of about two feet in the center run¬ 
ning the entire length. The ground was excavated 
about two feet in depth, and boarded up about a foot 
above the ground. The roof is of sufficient pitch to 
shed water, giving a height to the cellar of three feet 
at the sides and about seven feet in the center. The 
roof is of boards running lengthwise and covered 
about eight inches with manure. The entrance is at 
one end of the cellar, through an outer door leading 
into an entry-way about 6 x 12 feet for the storage of 
wood, etc. An inner door leads into the main cellar, 
entirely excluding light and frost. A small box stove 
is used for heating, setting back about one-third the 
distance through the cellar ; the pipe extends back to 
a flue at the rear end. When sufficient fresh manure 
is at hand to cover the cellar to a depth of 18 inches 
or two feet, little other heat will be required, j. e. m. 
Detroit, Mich. 
SCIONS. 
Ancient Briton Blackberry Tips —In The R. N.-Y. of December 
17, F. Cranefield says blackberry tips are sports, anil likely to be 
new varieties. Why ? The dewberry is a blackberry, it is propa¬ 
gated from tips, and these new plants are always true to the 
original plant. The Ancient Briton blackberry has dewberry 
blood in it; hence it propagates quite freely from the tips; at 
least, it does here on the prairies of Iowa. I have found many 
of these tips when covering the canes in the Fall. I have planted 
some of them, and they were true AncientiBriton blackberries. 
Golden, la. R. N. h. 
Farmers Buying Trees.— At a western meeting of wholesale 
nurserymen, held last December, a very satisfactory condition of 
the business was reported, and it was observed that farmers gen¬ 
erally must be more prosperous, because they were buying more 
fruit trees. In times of agricultural depression, men engaged in 
mixed farming are not, apparently, inclined to set out home 
orchards or berry patches. We notice that farmers generally 
show more interest in fruit and vegetables for family use than in 
former years, and regard it not only as an evidence of greater 
prosperity, but also of their wider outlook. 
Woolly Aphis and Apple Roots. —The sentiment has been gain¬ 
ing ground of late years in favor of using the Northern Spy as a 
stock on which to bud and grow other varieties. I have sup¬ 
posed that this was due, in a measure, to the fact that the tree is 
a healthy and rugged grower, rather than for any other reason. 
Of course, the fact that the tree itself is a healthy grower would 
indicate that the root must be correspondingly so; yet this proves 
nothing in regard to its ability to resist the depredation of the 
Woolly aphis. In Pennsylvania, they have always been annoyed 
to a much greater extent from the work of this insect than in New 
York State. s d. willard. 
Northern Spy Roots.— I am surprised to hear of the efforts of 
the California Experiment Station alluded to on page 8, since I 
consider the theories exceedingly visionary. The Northern Spy 
apple tree is a vigorous, straight-growing tree. This is all I can 
say of the Spy as superior to other varieties for firm roots that 
are capable of sustaining a more vigorous growth than other 
varieties. In my opinion, a great deal of nonsense is written by 
correspondents of the press about long and short apple grafts as 
affecting the growth, or future welfare of trees, and other kindred 
subjects. It seems to me that this experiment of the California 
people is similar to that of the theory of long and short grafts. 
CHAS A. GREEN. 
The Carrie Strawberry.— A Canadian reader says that this 
variety is represented by some growers as an improved Haver- 
land, and if it is an improvement in flavor and firmness, it is the 
berry for that section, as out of 13 varieties he fruited last year, 
the Haverland was the most productive. Our first report about 
the Carrie was made during the season of 1896 The plants were 
sent to us by Jos H. Black, Son & Co., Hightstown, N. J , during 
September, 1895. The berry, the first season, reminded us of 
Parker Earle in shape. During the past two seasons, the shape 
has been from round to broadly heart-shaped and regular. We 
regard it as, in all respects, better than Haverland—the flesh 
firmer—the color brighter and the size larger. Both are pistillate, 
ripening in midseason. One objection to the Carrie is that the 
stems are somewhat long, and do not fully support the berries. 
This objection is equally true of the Haverland. The Carrie is 
exceedingly productive, also hardy and vigorous. 
